


has anybody seen all my wasted love?

by badboy_fangirl



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-02
Updated: 2015-01-02
Packaged: 2018-03-04 22:26:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3093587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badboy_fangirl/pseuds/badboy_fangirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So, Stefan loves her. Or, at least this one day, he has a huge epiphany. So he comes to her all earnest-browed and serious-eyed, and she just laughs maniacally, because what bullshit is this?</p>
            </blockquote>





	has anybody seen all my wasted love?

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers through 6x10. 
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> [](http://smg.photobucket.com/user/americanoutlaw/media/TVD/Steroline%20this%20fools%20face_zpsqbpt934d.gif.html)  
> 
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> 
> From lynzie914's prompt: _tvd, caroline, if somebody loved you, they'd have told you by now_. Title lifted from Matt McAndrew's "Wasted Love." This isn't nearly as angsty as I intended.

She believes Matt when he says it. She certainly means it with every fiber of her being when she says it to him. Caroline Forbes loves Matt Donovan.

Who wouldn't love him?

(Elena Gilbert.)

But she, Caroline Forbes, loves him; she goes to great lengths to prove her love, and saves his life with her own blood. But he just doesn't think he can handle that kind of life.

She understands.

(Sort of. She thinks if it were Elena, he'd have figured out a way to make it work.)

But really, this is what it is: Matt Donovan doesn't love Caroline Forbes, plain and simple.

 

 

Tyler loves her. Tyler _worships_ at the altar of Caroline Forbes. Tyler doesn't like who he is without her.

(Tyler loved Tyler when Tyler was with Caroline.)

Until one day, he doesn't anymore. 

Klaus comes along and changes everything in Mystic Falls from Tyler's DNA to his status as an orphan, and Caroline tries to be understanding, she really does.

In reality, she put up with a lot of Tyler's shit for a long time before it had anything to do with Klaus, and then long after it had everything to do with him. 

(And Klaus…is distracting.)

The last time Tyler comes home after a werewolf-infused reason to leave, she's sure it will actually be the last time. She's optimistic. She's delusional. Sometimes it's hard to know the difference.

Isn't there a song… _sometimes love just ain't enough_ …? She YouTubes it; it's a thing. She cries for days. And then she just doesn't anymore.

It's not that there isn't enough love. 

She's read the book _He's Just Not That Into You._

 

 

Klaus is trapped in Elena's living room the day she realizes he thinks he's in love with her.

(She lets him believe it; it might come in handy down the line.)

It's ridiculous, of course. Klaus can't love anyone, not really. She's seen how he treats his own family; he's incapable of thinking about anyone beyond himself.

Still, the day he vows to be her last love, she'd be lying if she said it didn't make her heart flutter a little bit.

(Her stomach drops, her thighs tremble, and there's this heat between her legs that has nothing to do with love, but that's fitting.)

He might not know the meaning of love, but he certainly understands romance.

(When she lets him fuck her senseless in the woods, she doesn't care if he thinks it's love. She knows what it is, and she knows it will sever things forever with Tyler, and maybe that's the biggest reason she does it.)

 

 

So, Stefan loves her. 

Or, at least this one day, he has a huge epiphany. So he comes to her all earnest-browed and serious-eyed, and she just laughs maniacally, because what bullshit is this?

After everything, this is what he thinks she wants to hear?

Her mother is going to live, because they found a way around that whole cancer business. (It involved Bennett magic from a newly returned Bonnie, and some kind of cosmic deal that Caroline didn't fully understand.)

In the aftermath, Stefan texts her and asks her to take a walk with him, and then he makes this epic declaration.

"Caroline," he starts again when she finally stops laughing. "I mean, I'm _in love_ with you. I have been, for a while, I think."

It's the _I think_ that sets her teeth on edge, and the ability to believe anything that comes out of his mouth completely abandons her.

"You think?" she shouts. "YOU THINK?" she shouts even louder. "You are impossible!"

She spins around and stomps away, and he calls after her, but she doesn't slow down. They've done this so _many_ times.

Well, not _this_. Not in her wildest dreams had Caroline Forbes ever imagined Stefan Salvatore saying he loves her.

So, he can't possibly mean it, obviously.

"Caroline!" He's suddenly standing in front of her, and she slams to a stop against his chest. Damn vampire speed. His hands grasp her upper arms, steadying them both. "Look, I know I always do the wrong thing, but--"

"Shut up, Stefan! Just shut up!"

"--I'm not going to let you freeze me out!" he continues on as if she hasn't spoken.

Caroline blinks. And then she peers into his face. Stefan Salvatore, all chiseled jaw and deep green eyes and lips that rarely smile, so when they do, it's a treasure from heaven. " _I love you_ , Caroline. And maybe it's too late, and I probably deserve that, but you need to know how I feel. You need to know that _I know_ how I feel."

She feels her head start shaking back and forth, and then she's suddenly crying, and she doesn't even know why. Her head is on his shoulder, and his hands are soothing on her back, and he's whispering, "I'm sorry. So sorry. I know, I'm a dick. But I'm a dick who loves you. I swear on everything, Caroline. You...you are everything to me, and I can't..." Then his lips are next to her ear, and the shaky breath he takes somehow penetrates her heart the way she can't let words touch her. "I can't go on like this, with you thinking...without you knowing. I would do anything. _Anything_ to make you believe me. Even if that means you want me to walk away, for good. I can do it, Caroline. For you. If it will make you happy, I'll walk away."

They're on the sidewalk in front of her mom's house, because coming home to Mystic Falls is a thing that can happen now. And Caroline Forbes is in Stefan Salvatore's arms, and he's saying words that are foreign, that make no sense in the context of him and her, except.

_Except._

( _I promise you, I won't let anything happen to you._

_You don't have to pretend with me._

_Not that you couldn't do it, that you wouldn't...because that's what makes you, you._

_I didn't want you to think any less of me._ )

And all the moments in between that made her love him. Made her _in love_ with him.

His hands slide under her hair, cupping her face gently, to bring her eyes up to his. "Caroline," he whispers. "Just tell me what to do."

His thumbs brush away tears, his eyes search hers, and Caroline feels as if she's flinging herself off a proverbial cliff.

She bites her bottom lip, and his eyes drift away from hers for a moment. "Make me believe," she whispers back.

Stefan Salvatore smiles.

And Caroline Forbes takes a deep breath.

(And leaps.)


End file.
